Whatever Poisons In This Bottle
by herktownhick
Summary: Answer to a challenge fic...what if James did not die that night what if he just got misplaced from his body to that of someone elses.....
1. James, Snape, and a Vat of Orange Robes

Hiya. I have here a fic I wrote for a challenge a while ago and never got around to posting, but here it is. I have the first few chapters written and will post them over the next day or two.  
  
Feedback is always welcome, flames are funky too. Whatever...  
  
Disclaimer: hmm...yeah.. I wish I owned this but, sadly I don't. If you want you can sue me, you won't get much, but you can try....yeah...  
  
Summary: What if that one fateful Halloween evening James Potter didn't die. What if he just changed bodies. What would Harry do if he found out. And how would this affect his relationships.  
  
Warnings: Right at this very moment none, but in a couple of chapters it'll be slash. If you don't wanna read any of that wonderful stuffs then well too bad you're already here and must read hahahahahaha...i mean uh you can go back...yep...ok...  
  
James Potter walked the halls of Hogwarts with a frown on his face. It was only one week into the school year and already it seemed that everyone was conspiring to make his life miserable.  
  
He had just left his 5th Year Potions Class. Not only had Malfoy done everything imaginable to push him, but also he had been too busy pushing his buttons to pay attention to his potion. It had exploded all over him.  
  
Luckily, the potion hadn't done any permanent damage and there had been an antidote. It had, however, stained his robes a brilliant shade of orange that refused to come out with any of the cleaning spells he knew. He had to change his robes and that was exactly where he was headed when the voice he dreaded more then any other in the world came from behind him.  
  
"Professor!" it called a James turned around to look at the boy running up to him.  
  
"What is it?" he said with a frown.  
  
Harry Potter shuddered visibly then spoke," I'm sorry to bother you Professor Snape, but the Headmaster wants to speak with you right away."  
  
"You can go tell the Headmaster that I'm quite busy at the moment and I'll see him when I can." James said avoiding the boy's eyes.  
  
"He said it was urgent."  
  
"Fine Potter I'll be there in a minute."  
  
James laughed to himself. How funny it was that he was able to call the person who ruined everything, his own son, by the name no one else knew him by.  
  
He turned around and started walking to the Headmasters office, cursing the old man for making him walk around in these horrible, stained robes.  
  
Once he reached the gargoyle that opened to the Headmasters office he paused for a moment. He was thinking about finally telling Dumbledore that he was not Snape. It would be good to get it off of his chest and he wouldn't have to go on pretending he was a slimy git anymore, though it wasn't that far from the truth as he had gotten to be quite bitter with each passing day. In the end he decided against it, he didn't feel like having some old man try to run his life.  
  
"Pepper Imps." he said almost lazily as the gargoyle sprang open.  
  
"Ahhh Severus I was wondering when you'd get here."  
  
'I really hate this about him. He can't even fucking see who it is yet he knows its me. Oh wait he did ask for me to come. Oh well.'  
  
"Potter said you wished to speak with me."  
  
"Yes. Do sit down," he said as he motioned to a chair in front of his desk." Would you like some tea?"  
  
"No thank you, but I wouldn't say no to a cup of coffee. Now what is it that you called me down here for."  
  
"Here you go Severus. Would you like some cream or sugar?"  
  
"No thank you. Now why did you call me down here?" James was beginning to get agitated. No, he was long past agitated, he was annoyed, pissed, angry even. Why wouldn't Dumbledore tell him what he wanted so he could change out of these god-awful robes?  
  
"Yes Severus. I see that my plans to distract you aren't going to work are they?"  
  
"They never did." he replied shortly.  
  
'Dumbledore can be so infuriating.' James thought to himself.' He brings me here and then tries to get out of telling me why I'm here in the first place. Infuriating'  
  
"I wanted to speak with you about..." just then the signal for class to begin sounded. James cursed Dumbledore under his breath.  
  
"I have to go. I have a class. I'm late" and with that he headed towards the door.  
  
"Don't think you're going to get out of this so easily. Meet me back here after dinner."  
  
"I'll be looking forward to it." and with that he left.  
  
On his way back to the dungeons James wondered what Dumbledore could have wanted and how far he would go to interfere with his life this time.  
  
He walked into the classroom and surveyed the class. It was the 3rd Year Hufflepuffs and Ravenclews. This was by far his favorite class. They were quiet and it gave him loads of time to think. It just happened to come after his least favorite class so the quiet came as a relief. Today they were going to do the Shrinking Solution, a potion he had done a hundred times with various classes.  
  
He paired up Ravenclaws with Hufflepuffs so that maybe the class could pass without incident. And that it did. The class ended almost too quickly and James had a few minutes before lunch to change out of his soiled robes.  
  
He made his way to his room to change. It took him nearly ten minutes to pick out what to wear, but he finally settled on a plain, black robe. Then again every robe he owned was a plain black one. He had things on his mind that day and he was a bit out of it.  
  
He started in the opposite direction he came from and walked quickly up a few staircases to the Great Hall. Once outside its doors he placed a smirk upon his lips and sighed as he walked inside.  
  
James made his way to the High Table and sat in a chair near the end. He quickly scanned the Great Hall, his eyes landing on Harry.  
  
'Damn.' James thought.' I just had to look at him didn't I'  
  
Whenever James looked at Harry he always thought of his past. His past wasn't something he liked to think about. It was always too hard for him. And now here he was looking at the one thing left of it. It was that night he remembered the most. The night he lost everything. Everyone said Harry Potter was the on who lost things, but James had lost more. He had lost himself. No longer was he the same person he used to be, but an angry, bitter copy. Not even that. Since he no longer looked like himself anymore. No, he had to be some slimy git.  
  
'Of all the people I could have gotten to be I had to be Snape.' James thought.  
  
He could no longer concentrate on his dinner, this happened often and explained his drastic weight loss.  
  
Instead his thoughts wandered to that dreadful night.  
  
As soon as he started thinking about it Dumbledore called an end to the meal and James was shaken out of his daydreams.  
  
'Damn. If you're going to be miserable and think about your awful past the least you could do is think about it all at one time. And now I get to have a nice chat with Dumbledore. Yippee.' James thought sarcastically.  
  
James made his way out of the Great Hall and towards Dumbledores office for the second time that day. He prepared himself for the usual sermon from the old man, still wondering what it would be this time. 


	2. Harrys Mind Wanders Poor Thing

Pharfa again, here is the second chapter of this splendorful story.  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own any of this crikeyness. Too bad, huh?  
  
Warnings: No warnings as of yet, but as I said there will be slash in the next chapter or two..  
  
'Only 10 more minutes then I can leave. Only 10 more minutes then I can leave. Only.' Harry Potter repeated his new mantra in his head and nearly missed it when across the room across the room a cauldron exploded.  
  
He quickly looked up to see a smug looking Draco Malfoy, an extremely scared Neville Longbottom, and an orange Professor Snape.  
  
Snape was fuming. He stormed over to the two and started shouting, " Idiots, complete and utter idiots. Orange, how do you get it orange? Didn't explain that the potion should be a nice purple color? But no, Longbottom, you decide to ruin another cauldron and a pair of my robes. And you," he said turning to Malfoy, " I put you here to stop such accidents, but no you're too busy fooling around to even notice. 100 points from Gryffindor! 50 points from Slytherin! Now go to lunch, I don't want to have to look at you any longer."  
  
Harry gathered his things and made his way out of the room quickly. He met up with Ron and Hermione and made their way to the tower to drop off their things.  
  
"I can't believe Snape took away points from Slytherin." Ron laughed." Slimy git must be really pissed to take away from his house."  
  
"Well you know what they say, 'There's a first time for everything' guess this proves the point" Harry said trying to get his two cents in, but his mind was still elsewhere. It had been for a while. Now his thoughts rested on one person.  
  
He must have been deep in thought because the next thing he knew he ran right into Dumbledore.  
  
" Hello Harry. Hope I didn't disturb you. Would you please do me a favor?"  
  
" Yes Professor. What can I do?" Harry asked.  
  
" Would you please go get Professor Snape and tell him to meet me in my office. It's urgent so please tell him to hurry."  
  
" Yes Professor Dumbledore."  
  
' Oh great' Harry thought to himself.' I Just had class with him and now I have the pleasure to go see him yay for me.'  
  
Harry ran down to the dungeons hoping to get this over with as quickly as possible. On his way there he ran into Snape.  
  
'Well I suppose this'll make it easier.'  
  
"Professor!" Harry called. Hating every moment he was alone with this awful man.  
  
"What is it?" Snape said with a smirk.  
  
'Was that a smirk or a frown. No not a frown he's not human enough to frown."  
  
Harry shuddered visibly then spoke," I'm sorry to bother you Professor Snape, but the Headmaster wants to speak with you right away."  
  
"You can go tell the Headmaster that I'm quite busy at the moment and I'll see him when I can." Snape said avoiding the boy's eyes.  
  
'Is he avoiding my eyes. Why is he avoiding my eyes?'  
  
"He said it was urgent."  
  
'Yeah urgent that I get out of here, but lets not mention that to him.' Harry thought wishing he could run away screaming.  
  
"Fine Potter I'll be there in a minute."  
  
There was a certain way he said it that Harry knew the conversation had come to a close. That and he started walking towards the Headmasters office.  
  
Harry started back to Gryffindor Tower with a sour look on his face. Leave it to Snape to ruin what began as a good day.  
  
'I guess Snape has that effect on people.' Harry thought bitterly ' what I don't understand is why he wouldn't look me in the eyes. That's odd, he's always looked at me, at least long enough to give me the patented 'Snape Glare' Oh well. Now's not the time to think about Snape. Actually there's never really a time to think about Snape.'  
  
Harry met Ron and Hermione on the way back to the Tower.  
  
"Hiya. What are you guys doing out here?"  
  
"It nearly dinnertime and we're going to find you." Hermione said turning towards the direction of the Hall.  
  
"Really. How time flies when you're having fun." Harry said rolling his eyes.  
  
"I thought you were going to talk to Snape." Ron added being his usual clueless self.  
  
"Sarcasm" Hermione said hitting Ron on the back of his head.  
  
As they entered the Great Hall they noticed that the Slytherin table looked even more sour then usual, probably the loss of a considerable amount of points. None of them are talking, they're barely even looking at each other. And not one of them is touching their food.  
  
The Gryffindor table, however, was another thing all together. Everyone was elated at the sudden change in behavior of Snape. All through out dinner talk was on the possibilities for Snapes actions. Lavender seemed to think he was distracted by his robes being ruined and the loss of points was a mistake, Hermione thought he had finally come to the realization that Gryffindor was OK and was just trying to be evenly horrid with his point reductions, and the Weasley twins seemed to think that he has massive brain damage from being such an evil git all the time and that he can barely even walk on his own anymore.  
  
Harry on the other hand wasn't paying attention to his housemates at all throughout dinner. His attentions were focused elsewhere.  
  
Hermione too was fed up with the line of talk after awhile and settled down to read a new novel she had picked up over their last Hogsmeade weekend. She had just finished a chapter when she looked up. She noticed that Harry wasn't paying attention to his dinner and from the looks of his plate, he hadn't been all evening. She was about to question him when he quickly excused himself from the table and scurried off back to the common room.  
  
Hermione watched him leave the room wondering what had been on his mind lately, unaware that she was not the only one watching as he left. 


	3. dun dun dun the awaited interlude chapte

A nice interlude chapitre, we all loooove the interlude. Well of course its short cause that's how the interludeness is..duuuurrrrrrrr..  
  
Disclaimer: hmmmm....i know...CHICKEN!!!!  
  
Heres a little disclaimer song: If I could surf the, surf the wave I could be the king of the ocean You would think my coconuts would just fall off But they really should be loooose and freeeeeeeee -That's us...hehe  
  
James took as much time as he could with finishing his dinner before he begrudgingly made his way up to the Headmasters office. He took his time walking up to the office as well, stopping no less then 10 times to take points away from students. When he finally reached the Headmasters office he pause in front of the gargoyle once again to gather his thoughts and collect himself before he sighed, said the password, and dragged himself up the staircase.  
  
He walked into the office, quickly sitting down before Dumbledore had the chance to open his mouth.  
  
"Glad you could make it Severus. Would you like something to drink, some tea maybe? No? How about some sweets? You haven't had sweets in awhile I guess. Maybe a lemon drop or some Jelly Tots perhaps? No? Well I guess you wouldn't, would you."  
  
"No I wouldn't Albus, is that why you called me here. To offer me sweets or was there something you wanted to talk about?" James answered getting annoyed. Albus must have perfected the art of avoiding the subject; he seemed to being a lot of that lately.  
  
"No Severus, I just wanted to see how you were doing. If everything was okay. I've noticed you seem a bit paler then usual and I'm making sure everything's alright."  
  
'Oh god! I've been worried all day about this. Jesus.'  
  
"Everything's fine Albus." James said rising from his chair. "Now if you don't mind I have a few things to attend to. So, I'll just be going now. Goodbye."  
  
Albus watched as Severus left wondering still after 16 years about the enigma that was Severus Snape.  
  
James made his way back to his chambers after speaking with Dumbledore. It had been a long day and by this time, he was ready to go right to sleep, but as he reached his chambers, he noticed a huge pile of 6th year essays he had to grade.  
  
'This is going to take all night' James thought, sighing at the work he should have started earlier. 'If Dumbledore hadn't been so insistent on me meeting him tonight I could be asleep now'  
  
So, James set to work reading, checking, and grading 38 essays that night. It was becoming light again when he finished putting the last, and only, 'exceptional' on a student's paper. Worn out from lack of sleep he only made it to the couch before passing out, missing his day's classes. 


End file.
